From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 00:13:59 -0800 (PST)
To: Igor Chudov <ichudov@algebra.com>
Subject: Re: Rejection policy of the Cypherpunks mailing list
In-Reply-To: <199701280717.BAA16135@manifold.algebra.com>
Message-ID: <32EDB51D.31DF@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> Dale Thorn wrote:
> > Kevin L Prigge wrote:
> > > paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk said:

> > > > "cypherpunks will make the networks safe for censorship"

> > > "Idiots will make the networks require censorship"

> > The line above this one says it all, doesn't it?  If I judge you to
> > be "an idiot", then, if I also have the power to shut you up, I can
> > not only shut off your "noise" from me, but also prevent anyone else
> > from hearing you as well.  That's the real beauty of censorship -
> > if I have the power, I can make you a non-person by preventing most
> > people from hearing you at all.  Oh, lovely, isn't it?

> Don't you like power, Dale?

I have a great deal of respect for power.  When I was 6, I unwound a
coat hanger and put both ends into an electrical outlet.  All I
remember from that is something like a sledgehammer hitting me, and
I went backwards rather quickly.  And I never did it again.

But seriously, I was just telling the folks over the weekend, if I
had my hand on the button, a lot of people would die very quickly.
As in The Day The Earth Stood Still, a single act of aggression would
suffice to be immediately terminated.  The best place to begin, in
the USA at least, would be the public freeways.  There you have the
most acts of aggression in a short space, and the best pickings for
liquidation.  Give me the power, and I'll show you all those nifty
techno-ways of eliminating people that have been kept from the public
by our benevolent government ("sources and methods").

BTW, I don't give a damn about someone "cutting me off", since I'm
not aggressive enough (outside of my liquidation duties) to be bothered
by that in most cases.  I'm primarily concerned with vehicles who get
too close behind, who pass with no safety margin, etc.  I call these
people anal-compulsive (as opposed to anal-retentive).  You've seen
the videos on PBS, the various animal species whose male members
perform occasional "mounting" of others to intimidate.  There are a
large percentage of humans who try to do the same thing, demonstrating
that they (IMO) have no further need of their lives.